DisneySky - COMPLETE & RESTORED

[D Hulk]

Thor: Beyond the Bifrost
E-ticket boat dark ride

Join mighty Thor on a boat journey across the Nine Realms full of heroics and unexpected terrors

All throughout DisneySky, guests have constantly shattered new barriers and traveled to new horizons, from climbing a mountain to sailing the clouds to even reaching outer space. Now, as technology continues to progress, somehow even greater dimensions open up. Recent researches into astrophysics and quantum mechanics have revealed a way to travel beyond the speed of light, beyond our Solar System or even our galaxy, reaching out to realms which were once thought to be merely myth. Scientists such as Dr. Erik Selvig call this phenomenon an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. However, the medieval Norse people who knew of this anomaly called it by a different name…

The Bifrost!

Prepare to enter the mighty world of Thor Odinson! Prepare to travel via Rainbow Bridge from our realm and across the many Nine Realms. Get ready to witness the glistening spires of Asgard, the wintry halls of Jotunheim, and other dazzling universes. Get ready to ride alongside Thor as he battles terrible foes who seek to undo all that is good...with his half-brother Loki at the center of this mischief. Get ready for one of DisneySky’s most incredible dark ride experiences!

Thor: Beyond the Bifrost is only the second of two water rides in the entire park. For balance, both physical and thematic, it sits on DisneySky’s opposite end from Storm Mountain. This particular water ride repurposes the ride system (and heck, even the layout) from Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure. This is an incredibly high-capacity ride system, with magnetically-propelled Viking longboats able to magically turn and face any scenery. It is also a fantastically immersive storytelling device, one which can surely do the God of Thunder justice.

(Note that this is a major headliner, one that is likely to be added sometime in the years following DisneySky’s grand opening. Note too that this ride alone takes up square footage that is currently used by Anaheim’s Red Lion Hotel. This write-up assumes Disney will purchase and raze that building.)

Beyond the Bifrost is the headlining attraction of Avengers Airspace’s Goodman Park city area, centrally located in Goodman Plaza. The ride is facaded within the Museum of Norse History, which is realised in a Beaux Arts style similar to the New York Public Library Main Branch, albeit with additional medieval Scandinavian details. Chief among these is a pair of marble statues flanking the main entryway, depicting respectively the head and the tail of the Midgard Serpent (the mythical version, not the Marvel version) seemingly passing beneath the stairs. A banner spanning the entrance reads “Journey Into Mystery - Guest Lecturer Dr. Erik Selvig.”

An impact crater scars the city asphalt before the Museum of Norse History, blocked off by police barricades. In its center is Mjolnir, Thor’s enchanted hammer. Only one who is worthy may lift it...meaning that Mjolnir serves as a fun, interactive guest photo-op much like Fantasyland’s Sword in the Stone. Regularly throughout the day, there is a special lifting ceremony - Thor’s Uplifting Event - where a live Thor face performer tasks a group of guests to try picking up Mjolnir. Thor runs through the whole “Whosoever be worthy” spiel. Finally, a preselected child does succeed in lifting the hammer, to much applause. (Mjolnir is then returned to its perch in the crater.)

Entrance to Beyond the Bifrost is not up the museum’s grand central staircase, but rather off to one side through a side entrance under the main balustrade. Nearby to this queue entrance is FastPass distribution, done with monolithic Norse stones set on display in the museum gardens, their ancient runes glowing magically whenever a FastPass is reserved.

Queue - Museum of Norse History, Main Exhibition Hall

Passing through this side entrance, queued guests meander through twisting hallways past the museum’s staff offices, past doors with frosted glass windows indicating deliveries, acquisitions, and so forth.

But these hallways are brief, just a momentary contraction moment before guests reach the central museum exhibit space under marble arches. Relics on display are all from a recent archeological dig. These artifacts blend the worlds of real Norse history, and the more mythic/cosmic world of Marvel’s Thor…

There is a runestone depicting the legendary events of Ragnarok. There are assorted cases of helmets and weapons and hammers. An illuminated manuscript shows the cosmic tendrils of Yggdrasil. A woven textile map shows off the Nine Realms (plus the odd side-realm of Sakaar), predicting the ride’s upcoming sequence of events. There are relics on loan from Tonsberg’s restored Church of the Tesseract, as seen in the opening scene of The First Avenger. Here and there are Easter eggs from Epcot’s Maelstrom, such as a statuette of a three-headed troll.



Selvig’s Office

The queue travels upstairs, following a route similar to Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean, in order to cross the ride’s waterways. Two queue lines form here, running in parallel towards two eventual loading docks.

For now, they continue upwards past another large exhibition hall on the left where a whole Viking longboat sits on display. Other assorted nautical Norse artifacts sit around its base. This exhibit is in disarray, tossed aside by Dr. Selvig’s hastily-deposited scientific equipment. There are thick electrical cables, buzzing battery cases, Jane Foster’s phase meter, and gravitational rods from Thor: The Dark World.

Dr. Selvig’s main office space is to the right of the queue, with windows overlooking the ride’s canals subterranean below. A television is haphazardly set up atop a desk, next to a radio which quietly plays Led Zeppelin's “Immigrant Song” (Thor’s unofficial theme). This TV provides our ride context. On a video loop, Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) describes his quantum observations into the Nine Realms and his search for Thor. Now is the time in between The Dark World and Ragnarok, the time when Thor when exploring the cosmos in search of Infinity Stones...while Loki secretly sat on the throne of Asgard disguised as Odin.

On his video, Selvig rambles about tracking Thor’s location using wormhole fluctuations. Selvig also describes a fleet of boats he has assembled, boats which combine traditional Nordic shipcraft and modern astrophysical knowledge. Boats that are able to travel both the Bifrost and the secret passageways of the Nine Realms. Setting forth from the freshwater canals beneath the museum, boats will follow Selvig’s pre-programmed route tracing Thor’s footsteps across the universe. Space maps taped over Norse tapestries depict our upcoming route in detail, charting a course over the starry tendrils of Yggdrasil, with special notes made of Asgard and Muspelheim.

Loading - Underground Aqueduct

The queue turns right towards stairs which lead down into the subterranean museum foundation. Two queue platforms sit along an aqueduct edge within this low-slung brick cellar. This is a long-abandoned New York subway station, built during the Gilded Age to coincide with the Museum of Norse History’s grand opening. The ceiling, hidden beneath generations of grime, bears an oil mural depicting the mythical events of Ragnarok.

This chamber, long forgotten by most, converted by the city into a storm drain decades ago, is most recently host to Selvig’s Bifrost experiments. Illumination comes from spotlights hooked directly into the city’s power grid. Scientific poles and grating serve as queue barriers and gates. Viking-style bateaux longboats, each able to seat 36 riders in six rows of six, are dispatched by a lab tech cast member behind an electrical console.
​

RIDE STATS
Ride type: Boat dark ride
Capacity per boat: 36 (6 rows of 6)
Hourly capacity: 3,240
Duration: 8:00
Height restriction: None​

 

[Imagineer Brandon]

i've really enjoyed reading this, though it took a few days. this is a great way to do a disney park, intelligent and tasteful but youthful and whimsical in all the right places. i appreciate that it is not overly reverent of things we love as imagineering fans, its all too easy to fall into the trap of relying on stuff only we care about and forgetting the wide appeal a disney theme park should have. you've struck a good balance and i look forward to continually following this project as you approach the finish line.

 

[Garfield Builder]

i've really enjoyed reading this, though it took a few days. this is a great way to do a disney park, intelligent and tasteful but youthful and whimsical in all the right places. i appreciate that it is not overly reverent of things we love as imagineering fans, its all too easy to fall into the trap of relying on stuff only we care about and forgetting the wide appeal a disney theme park should have. you've struck a good balance and i look forward to continually following this project as you approach the finish line.

I agree.

 

[D Hulk]

Ride layout

Ride Experience - Bifrost Tunnels

As stated earlier, the ride system and even the ride layout are derived from Shanghai Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure. This is a cost-saving reskin of existing ride tech, like Indiana Jones Adventure becoming Dinosaur.

The ride experience sees boats traveling via Selvig’s ad hoc wormhole network, and via a series of secret passageways, throughout the Nine Realms. That journey into mystery begins with a slow drifting passage in New York City’s decaying water tunnels. (A conveyor belt carrying two boats from the loading platform staggers their release into the waterways.)

Dr. Selvig appears on a TV mounted overhead to explain that he is opening up a rainbow passage to Asgard. A multicolored Bifrost lightshow envelops the boat. Arches overhead glow like rainbows. Shadowy doors ahead open up in silence. Once the colorful Bifrost effects cease, riders discover that they have been magically whisked across the universe to Asgard!

Asgard

All the splendor and majesty of Asgard surrounds boats on all sides, beautifully lit by a golden late afternoon sun. The waters’ shores teem with boulders and greenery, from which grow shimmering Asgardian spires. The Rainbow Bridge stretches out over the splashing waters. To the right - where in Shanghai you might find a restaurant - is a forced perspective model of the Asgard Palace. Sunlight sparkles off the assembled towers. Celestial objects appear in the dusky pink skies. On-board speakers play Patrick Doyle’s Thor soundtrack, instilling the proper bold spirit of pomp and majesty.

Waterways drift towards the pediment of an Asgardian storehouse. Along the way is a somewhat ominous sight - a golden monumental statue of Loki, as seen in Ragnarok. This is the last thing riders see before drifting into catacomb tunnels.

Palace Catacombs

But these catacombs are no dire affair. Rather, Asgard’s regal formality continues even here, in a secret space beneath the palace. Doyle’s triumphant music continues that tone. Boats glide between rows of massive golden statues, each one honoring the ancient Asgardian gods such as Bor. Two animatronic ravens upon a statue’s shoulders, symbols of Odin, keenly observe riders’ passage.

A framed arch ahead cuts through a golden gilt mural. This mural is animated by arcane Asgardian magic (and by projection mapping), bringing subtle movement to a fresco scene of Odin ruling with his sons Thor and Loki by his side.

Odin’s Vault

Then boats enter the archway, and briefly drift through total darkness...one of the secret passageways Selvig spoke of, which spatially connect Asgard’s disparate landmarks.

Riders are now in Odin’s Vault. An alcove to the left, with a minimalist design combining aspects of old Scandinavia and new Art Deco, shows off a treasure trove of famed relics. Here is the false Infinity Gauntlet as seen in the original Thor. Here is the Eternal Flame, the Warlock’s Eye, and the glowing Tesseract. Walls are adorned with a full arsenal of mythic hammers. (To the right, meanwhile, is darkness, and the boats’ maintenance bay.)

Asgardian Dungeons

Deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Palace, darkness creeps in. Boats meander to the left, briefly passing the royal dungeons. In all regards, this corresponds to Shanghai’s brief dungeon scene. Barred chambers hold the skeletal remains of Asgard’s enemies, all of them fearsome legendary monsters...some huge, some horned, some multi-limbed...

Heimdall’s Observatory

Thus far, all this has been table setting...static, ambient scenes to build rider anticipation and to deepen the mythic mood. Riders expecting some sort of animatronic effects extravaganza right on the outset might even be underwhelmed. But miracles are about to occur!

Another portal of blackness transports boats beyond the Rainbow Bridge and into Heimdall’s Observatory, Himinbjorg. This is an extravagant half-dome rotunda, formed entirely of gold and animated with spinning inset discs. The observatory comes to life as boats enter, causing boats to pick up speed and - for the first time on the ride - to rotate and face scenery. An animatronic Heimdall (bearing the likeness of Idris Elba) rises up to greet guests, clad all in gold armor and leaning against his Bifrost Sword. Heimdall, the All-Seer, holds the cosmos in his eyes.

“I have seen you coming, Midgardians. You come seeking Thor. I see him too, in the icy realm of Jotunheim.”

A sudden, sickly green magic envelopes Heimdall. In the blink of an eye, he sheds his disguise and reveals himself to be - Loki!

This is a modification of Shanghai’s transformation effect, where a static skeleton morphs into an animatronic Jack Sparrow. Using precise mirror placement and two separate animatronics (combining modern projections with vintage Pepper’s ghost effects), Heimdall seamlessly transmogrifies into the fearful trickster god Loki (Tom Hiddleston). He cackles wickedly.

“Ah, my brother’s little pets, the maggots of Midgard. What a perfect distraction! Let’s keep Thor busy rescuing you from the perils of Jotunheim!”

Loki twists the Bifrost Sword in its mechanical hilt. The Bifrost activates, as boats fly out backwards through the observatory window into the cosmos!

Jotunheim

As on Battle for the Sunken Treasure, riders enter a circular IMAX screen chamber. Facing left as the boat rotates clockwise, a projection screen surrounds riders’ fields of vision. The strange sensation of watery flight is easily achieved!

The boat rides the swirling rainbow vortex of the Bifrost, as it hurtles lightyears across the galaxy in mere seconds. Swiftly enough the lightshow subsides, revealing the frozen ice realm of Jotunheim. A cold wind blows. Blizzard effects populate the IMAX screen, where the expansive frozen wastelands stretch into darkness. Icy rockwork lines the screen’s edge, masking the seam between the water’s edge and the screen.

Frost Giants trudge along the snowbanks, dragging treasure sleds on chains. One Giant pauses and turns, noticing riders. It blows its horn. A fanged Jotunheim Beast crashes through a glacier, leaping directly at riders, when -

Thor flies in on his hammer and pummels the monster! Actual, physical steam cloud blasts synch up with Thor’s punches, making this projection scene feel immediate and visceral. As Thor battles the beast, he looks desperately to riders. “Go! Seek shelter! I’ll hold him off.”

Cavern of the Ice Beast

Gliding backwards, the boat enters a physical ice cave set. Titanic vertical shards of ice form this space. Gaps in the shards reveal screen views of outside, where Thor continually battles the Frost Beast. With every blow struck by Mjolnir, the ceilings physically rumble, and icy basalt columns shoot off mist.

Dr. Selvig comes over the boat’s radio. “Hello? You’ve gone wildly off course. I’m charting a route back home using Yggdrasil, but it will send you across many realms.”

Frost Giants’ Throne Room

Contiguous scenery carries the boat from the collapsing cave into the Frost Giants’ Throne Room. Up stepped terraces covered in icicles, the Casket of Ancient Winters rests upon a plinth. Through the semi-transparent icy walls, riders glimpse the starry roots of Yggdrasil awakening like the aurora of the Milky Way...the passage home which Selvig spoke of.

As the boat turns and charts towards a glowing Bifrost opening, a huge animatronic Frost Giant face peers in from a crevice window! His blue eyes glow. He pelts riders with a cold, wintry breath. As the Giant roars and the walls shake, the Bifrost activates. Fibre-optics in the slanted shard cave glow and flash. With another arcing flash of rainbow colors, riders make the jump to another realm!
​

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In tomorrow's ride climax, we shall travel to the furthest reaches of the Nine Realms...and beyond.

 

[MickeyWaffleCo.]

Wow! Beyond the Bifrost is even better than I thought it would be! And we’re not even done!

 

[D Hulk]

Niflheim

Suddenly riders find themselves in Niflheim...also known as Hel! This is a lifeless world of death, and the dominion of Hela. Her silhouetted form is even subtly visible on a distant horizon. The jagged rocky landscape resembles Hela’s distinctive sword shards, mixed with elements of Thanos’ Sanctuary. The foreground architecture is like an ossuary, with walls and terraces built up from countless skulls. Mists cover everything. There are distant, indistinct screams, often covered up by the howling winds.

Thankfully this is a brief scene, because another Yggdrasil portal swiftly manifests. As gravity pulls the boat to the right backwards, a quick rotation reveals the latest destination -

Planet Sakaar

Sakaar, a planet made of garbage! Sakaar sits at the nexus of worlds; trash falling from dozens of wormholes forms this realm. Many of those blue wormholes are visible overhead as screen projections. Through the wormholes, riders might glimpse other Marvel realms, with places such as Knowhere or Xandar switching out as new MCU entries dictate.


Mark Mothersbaugh’s “Planet Sakaar” from Thor: Ragnarok

Physically, colorful piles of junk form Sakaar’s. Everywhere there is physical ship debris, discarded animatronics, bits of scenery from defunct Disney attractions, and other detritus. A group of animatronic Scavengers - short alien creatures in motley robes - emerges from the garbage to quizzically regard riders. Employing a little Taika Waititi-style humor, one of the Scavengers still has garbage over its head; another one has its arm stuck in a dead furry beast.

The boat continues to turn towards the right, providing riders with grand sweeping panoramic views of Sakaar’s loveliest filth. Foreground garbage includes homemade spectator mementos commemorating Sakaar’s Champion - better known to us as the Incredible Hulk - with objects like big green papier mache Hulk masks and signage. In the far distance is the Grandmaster’s Palace, realized with a forced perspective model set before a painted backdrop. The Grandmaster himself (Jeff Goldblum) appears as a massive hologram before his Palace, his neon off-color form projected against a concave glass shield. “Welcome, one and all,” Grandmaster intones wildly “to Sakaar, the land of holes.”

As the boat starts to drift left, another animatronic monstrosity rises up from a heap of rubbish. Riders admire the rock monster Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi). This Kronan warrior is accompanied by Miek, a slobbering and manic animatronic insect with knife-arms. Korg cordially addresses riders:

“Hey man, I’m gonna start this ginormous revolution. Wanna join? Sorry I don’t have any pamphlets but...Oh well, they’re escaping already.”

The Roots of Yggdrasil

Indeed riders are escaping from Sakaar, back through a swirling vortex of Bifrost rainbows and Yggdrasil nebula roots. Through this dark, cavernous passage, many smaller portals in Yggdrasil’s tendrils reveal many more of Thor’s worlds for riders to briefly glimpse (as screen projections).

See Vanaheim, Asgard’s sister realm. As envisioned in the earlier scenes of The Dark World, it is a pastoral Viking village seated in a field at a wood’s edge.

See Nidavellir, the realm of dwarves. This mighty forge, erected in space around a dying neutron star, is seen here in her heyday, long before her destruction at Thanos’ hands as depicted in Infinity War. Ytri the Dwarf gets a brief cameo.

Svartalfheim

Past these brief sights, the Bifrost deposits riders into Svartalfheim. This is the realm of the Dark Elves, the titular Dark World of Thor: The Dark World, a colorless ashy landscape with barren volcanic plains and yellow skies.

Lightning strikes a foreground volcanic pillar - a shocking surprise effect as seen on Journey to the Center of the Earth. And with this dramatic entrance, a very real animatronic Thor appears to guests...facing in the wrong direction.

That’s another moment of Waititi-like levity. Thor realizes his error and turns around, gesturing with Mjolnir and speaking with the voice of Chris Hemsworth. “I promise you, friends, a final safe passage. All we have to do is cross Muspelheim.”

Projections coat a wall ahead, red with cosmic radiation like Sakaar’s Magnetar wormhole (the, uh, the Devil’s ). The wall slides open, revealing...

Muspelheim

Muspelheim, land of the Fire Demons, lair of Surtur!

This is a second IMAX screen rotunda. More wraparound screens fully surround riders in Muspelheim’s hellish, fiery terrors. Film fans know this place from the opening of Thor: Ragnarok. It is a planet composed of volcanic rocks and molten lava, where active eternal flames constantly dance on the horizons. Far away in the distance and barely visible, the great demon Surtur sits on his throne. Strong heat effects and the smell of sulfur help to immerse guests. The waterways glow a molten crimson red.

Suddenly a Fire Dragon swoops at riders! Thor flies in from behind, just as he did with the Frost Beast, and hammers the Dragon. Over the boat radios, “Immigrant Song” blasts out at full volume! Classic rock accompanies a scene straight out of an album cover - Thor battling the Leviathan-sized Fire Dragon, and a whole host of lesser Fire Demons!



The whole realm erupts with an angry fury! The magma waterways rise upwards, lifting riders up from Muspelheim’s cavernous depths to her deadly surface. Endless seas of lava vanish behind sulfuric gas clouds. Jagged palaces of magma surface on all sides surrounding the boat, like black hellish Gothic cathedrals. Light water jets spray riders. Glowing lava riverbeds propel the boat backwards and spinning!

Thor Faces Sindr

Spinning 180 degrees, riders find themselves in between two massive physical lava cliff palaces. These palatial structures - enveloping guests like the pirate ships on Battle for the Sunken Treasure - frame another massive IMAX screen.

In the glowing distance, a monstrously titanic red form rises up from the bubbling lava. Behold...Sindr! As tall as an oak, composed entirely of flames. She is Surtur’s daughter, Queen of Cinders, and thus far a nonentity in the MCU. Thor flies in to battle her.

“So Odinson, you dare to face Sindr, Queen of Muspelheim?”

As an epic struggle plays out in the distance, the palace comes alive. Horrid, disgusting Fire Demons torment riders as screen effects in the palace windows. Physical flames spit out from giant skull faces carved into the palace walls. Waters burst like the Pirates of the Caribbean cannonball effects.

On the IMAX screen, Sindr wraps Thor up in a massive chain. A physical chain set piece moves in sync with these screen effects, attached to an iron gate in the lava rock walls. Thor conjures the lightning! He breaks free from his chains, causing the gate to lift up. Currents suction riders through this gate, as Sindr strikes the waters with her flaming hand. Waters around riders physically catch on fire, but only for a mere instance before riders are swallowed up by a volcanic cavern.

Battle in the Lava Caves

As the battle between Thor and Sindr continues to rage outside, the boat floats through a monumental volcanic tower. Surtur’s Sword serves as a structural pillar. Cages full of skeletons rise up from the waters. Projected shadows on the wall show Thor continually fighting the Fire Demons outside. Carved ornate rock ceilings collapse around riders!

The boat turns to peer out through a cave mouth. Framed by magma vents, beyond is the final battlefield of Thor and Sindr - another screen incorporated into the physical sets. “You cannot stop the coming of Ragnarok!” Flames shoot out from boiling cauldrons in the foreground. Thor binds Sindr in her own chain. He reaches out his arm. Mjolnir flies in through the sulfuric steam. Hammer in hand, Thor leaps up to deliver one final blow!

Lightning explodes all around riders! Mjolnir’s shockwave hurtles the boat backwards, down a flashing drop and through a Bifrost portal!

Alfheim

The boat recovers in green, verdant Alfheim. This calm and tranquil paradise is the home of the Light Elves, with gardens made of candy and rivers made of wine. It is a realm yet unexplored in the MCU...though Love and Thunder gives us hope. A few animatronic frogs at the water’s edge serve as a little nod to Frog Thor.

The boat calmly sails backwards past an Asgardian skiff, then turns towards the left to face a triumphant Thor - one final animatronic, better located than Shanghai’s equivalent Jack Sparrow animatronic. Thor stands in an enchanted forest glen, with Mjolnir dangling from a tree branch. The nighttime sky above, framed by elm leaves, suggests the stars of the Milky Way forming Yggdrasil’s mighty branches.

“All this talk of Ragnarok. I must look into this.” And thus, Beyond the Bifrost is established as a direct prequel to Thor: Ragnarok.

Thor grabs Mjolnir from the tree branch - with the use of magnets, this impressive animatronic enjoys greater-than-ever interaction with its environment. Thor lifts Mjolnir to the skies. With a single triumphant lightning flash, he is gone...vanished by rotating sets and careful lighting.

Bifrost Tunnel Return

A final Bifrost tunnel scene mirrors that from the ride’s start. The boat once again traverses the cosmos, and again finds itself drifting the earthly tunnels beneath New York’s Museum of Norse History. A final right turn lies ahead. In this corner, there is a huge runestone in the Norse style, which depicts Thor’s defeat of Sindr. Triumphant fanfare music plays out on the boat radios as a very brief lift hill ferries riders back to the loading bay.
​

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Unloading to the right of the waterway, guests exit via museum hallways past friezes depicting scenes from Norse myth. Just before the pathways turn right and deposit guests into the Odin’s Vault post-ride shop, there is a final arched alcove. Like much of the Museum, architecturally it recalls the New York Public Library. Some of Dr. Selvig’s lab monitors form an array; screens feature on-ride photos taken on the climactic drop.​

 

[D Hulk]

Doctor Strange in the Sanctum of Insanity
D-ticket Mad House

You’re invited into the home of sorcerer Doctor Strange, where indescribable sights defy the laws of physics

To enter the world of Doctor Stephen Strange is to enter a world of madness. In his role as the Sorcerer Supreme, Master of the Mystic Arts, Strange explores a multiverse which is far more expansive and unknowable than any realm yet visited in DisneySky. With a mysticism which looks back to our thematic beginnings in Mythic Realms, combined with a modern scientific approach more in-tune with settings like Cosmic Crater and Avengers Airspace, Strange fuses so very much of DisneySky’s mission statement. The time has come for us to grab a glimpse into a world beyond reasoning.

To say too much in advance about Doctor Strange in the Sanctum of Insanity would ruin the effect. It’s best to forget all you think you know, and experience it for yourself. All we’ll say for now is that a wild kaleidoscope of sensation awaits!

The attraction is housed within 177A Bleecker Street, the Sanctum Sanctorum, a Victorian brownstone in Greenwich Village which serves as Strange’s magical mansion. The Sanctum sits on the corner of Waterfront Way and Bleecker Street; its main door looks out onto Langley Lagoon. Even in the daylight, the Sanctum is a striking presence, with its French Baroque architecture and its Mansard roof. From street level, guests can hear muffled incantations emanating from within. At night the Sanctum’s third floor window - its Seal of Vishanti - glows with eerie swirling lights, while even its solid panes seem to subtly shift under some metaphysical influence.

Queue - The Sanctum Gardens

While passage through the Sanctum Sanctorum’s front doors marks the beginning of our uncanny journey, first we must congregate outside in the Sanctum’s gardens. A fenced-off Gothic city park lies to the Sanctum’s right, sandwiched between the brownstone facades, the power plant structure of The Core on the other side, and a red brick wall on the far end. This is an oasis within New York City, shaded by London plane elms and white oaks.

There are hints of Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park mixed in with more esoteric relics. Plantings of ivy suggest the supernatural. Garden beds of occult herbs circle a gazebo. Arcane relics range from a simple astrolabe, to bronze statuary depicting Doctor Strange’s otherworldly foes. A monumental bronze cast gate is modeled after Auguste Rodin’s Gates of Hell, and depicts Strange in battle against enemies such as Dormammu and Kaecilius and Mordo. An interactive kaleidoscope sculpture on a plinth serves both to entertain guests while they wait, and to foreshadow the experience to come.

A brick-lined queue meanders these gardens. When the clock strikes, cast members clad as initiates into the Mystic Arts gather together a group of guests, a group numbering around seventy-eight. Curtained-off pathways lead back out from the gardens’ Gothic entry gates, and along the front facade and into the Sanctum Sanctorum...

The Grand Foyer

The grand foyer greets guests. A majestic central staircase leads to the unseen upper levels. Low lighting gently bounces off of carved wooden walls. Strange’s Sanctorum holds the greatest concentration of occult esoterica and mystical phenomena in existence, many of which appear on display throughout the foyer. Guests are welcome to inspect these relics as they convene awaiting the Sorcerer Supreme.

There are a great many globes...some of them depicting unknown worlds. A glass case holds the animatronic Cloak of Levitation, which floats in midair and bristles under its own mystical energies. Another encased animatronic artifact is the famed Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, enchanted ruby red strips which pulsate like snakes. A green case holds an apple in a time loop, as the fruit is endlessly eaten and uneaten. An open grimoire on a pedestal suctions air into its pages. A wall directory lists out further relics which aren’t presently manifest, relics bearing names like Crown of Blindness, Oculus Oroboros, Orb of Snnnr, Wand of Watoomb, and so forth. As Doctor Strange’s MCU adventures grow, expect more artifacts to appear.

Pre-Show 1 - The Sorcerer Speaks

With all guests firmly within the Sanctum’s walls, the doors shut and the lights dim. Doctor Strange’s disembodied voice (Benedict Cumberbatch) echoes across the chamber, welcoming all to his abode. Strange begins with a brief rundown of his resume - Sorcerer Supreme,Master of the Mystic Arts, Earth’s defender from supernatural threats - to clue-in any unfamiliar guests. He then thanks us for coming (for subconsciously responding to his psychic invitation), and asks us to proceed deeper into the Sanctum’s secrets.

On one side of the main staircase or another - it varies - a door frame magically forms in the solid wood paneling. Picture a special effect similar to the growing magical door from Magic Kingdom’s Enchanted Tales with Belle. As the passageway forms, projections within it reveal multitudinous magical multiverses, all colorful hallucinatory imagery like 2001’s “Beyond the Infinite” sequence. Then with a fantastic lightning crash, the doorway is fully formed, and guests pass through to the dimension beyond.

Pre-Show 2 - Strange’s Library

Guests head into one of two identical Sanctum libraries, each only a fraction of the foyer’s size. (This doubling up of sets helps expand visitor throughput, and it also maintains the Sanctum’s non-Euclidean bonafides.) Welcome to the Doctor’s private library, where a stately roaring fireplace illuminates countless shelves of self-moving books. Behold mystic titles such as the Book of Cagliostro, the Book of Eibon, the Oral Scrolls of Tooli, the Scroll of Eternity, and the Necronomicon. A few relics sit prominently displayed on the mantelpiece, among them the chain-bound Book of Vishanti, the green-glowing Eye of Agamotto, and the swirling crystal ball Orb of Agamotto.

With all again gathered and with the outer doors again sealing shut and condensing guests into an increasingly intimate space, Doctor Strange again narrates astrally through the air. Discarding his former formal tone to betray a quiver of panic, Strange explains that an unknown guest among our group is...possessed! Flames suddenly burst from candelabra!

A giant one-way mirror on the inner wall corroborates Strange’s tale. As Strange tells it, the evil spirit Nightmare has entered one of our psyches while we slept, and now silently bides his time. In the mirror, via Pepper’s ghost effect, we glimpse Nightmare’s animatronic form - gaunt, pale, clad in green armor - flitting between us! This live reflection of guests itself soon grows ghostly, turned into a bizarre astral projection like the Tower of Terror mirrors. Strange continues, stating that since he cannot be sure who among us is possessed, we must all retreat to the Sanctum’s inner heart for an exorcism.

(It seems increasingly likely that Nightmare will be a main villain in Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In that event, The Sanctum of Insanity can either modify its content to fit the new MCU version, or it can select another of Strange’s rogue’s gallery to serve our villain role.)

Sling Ring Portals

The library’s inner wall telescopes inwards & away from the congregated guests - actually into a space shared by the other pre-show library - revealing a bare wood wall. With a magical crackle of energies, a swirling Sling Ring portal forms in this wall, appearing as if from nowhere. (This too is a variation on the Enchanted Tales door effect, combining telescoping doorways with projection effects.)

This portal ferries guests down the final stretch of hallways into the Sanctum’s very center. Guests walk down a long archway of twisting waters leaping overhead, lit with psychedelic colors - this effect being familiar from Poseidon’s Fury at Islands of Adventure.

One last vestibule returns guests from this unreal watery dimension back to the relatively stable interiors of the Sanctum. This chamber is a single floor tall, to accommodate animatronic space upstairs. A pair of doors leads to two separate seating platforms. “Living” oil paintings line the walls, paintings of Wong and the Ancient One, with a screen effect like Universal’s Harry Potter attractions. Windows constantly change their dimensions.
​

---

Tomorrow, a ride hitherto undreamt of.

 

[D Hulk]

The Heart of the Sanctum

Welcome at last to the very center of the Sanctum Sanctorum, the Nexus of All Realities, the Rotating Rotunda.

This is a long Great Hall with a vaulted ceiling where the circular Seal of Vishanti prominently features in a window. Rows of seats line either side, each row facing inwards towards a checkerboard floor. Parallel tiered benches seat 20 guests each, all of them looking inwards. Cast member sorcerers efficiently buckle guests in place, while pouches store guests’ belongings. Preparations for Strange’s ceremony are concluded.
​

RIDE STATS
Ride type: Vekoma Madhouse
Theater capacity: 80
Hourly capacity: 1,200
Duration: 3:00
Height restriction: None​

In case this setup seems unfamiliar, The Sanctum of Insanity uses a Vekoma Madhouse ride model. This is a very unique “flat ride,” one which allows for complete dark ride immersion.

The ride is at heart an optical illusion...a gigantic kaleidoscope with riders on the inside. Guests sit on a swaying gondola platform, one which swings back and forth independently of the room. The room itself, meanwhile, rotates in its own directions, at first moving in unison with the gondola and then eventually moving in complete opposite to it. The result is a mind-bending experience where guests feel as if they are being held upside down within a magically transforming chamber. This particular Madhouse uses the same model as Efteling’s Villa Volta.

Ride Experience - The Rotating Rotunda

The room starts to spin almost imperceptibly at first. Guests will only notice if they pay particular attention to their own shifting center of gravity. Doctor Strange, still unseen, starts to chant exorcism incantations. He runs through a litany of bombastic phrases in Latin and Sanskrit.

Lighting throughout the chamber starts to shift and waver as the ride increases in intensity. As the rotating intensifies, guests grow more aware of the strange gravity effects taking place. Lighting grows wilder in sync with the experience, taking on psychedelic hues as the barriers of reality break down.

Then the room and the seats break free from each other! They rotate independently! A green fibre-optic spirit passes amongst the seated riders - this is Nightmare’s soul manifesting itself in our waking world. Nightmare’s voice starts to rise, overtaking Strange’s incantations and shouting in opposition to the wizard.

Strange Nightmares

The room’s “floor” transforms under Nightmare’s evil influence. With a screen projection effect, that floor morphs into a portal to the Dream Dimension, to Nightmare’s various created realms. The floor is spinning around wildly by now, constantly retreating beneath the ride platforms and then reemerging in the ceiling space overhead.

With each turn, a nightmarish new dimension is revealed in its screens: A fractal world breaks down the checkerboard tile pattern into shifting mirrors. A molecular world under Dormammu’s influence, where spores and magma merge. A world of multiplying infinities, where hands grow out of other hands, eyeballs out of eyeballs, ad infinitum.

A magical “tug of war” erupts between Nightmare and Doctor Strange. As their dueling chants overtake the senses, an animatronic Doctor Strange emerges from a parapet on the chamber’s entry wall! “Hovering” from an unseen arm, Strange emerges from the far stable wall and floats towards the spinning Sanctum’s center. Magical laser lights and fibre-optics burst from Strange’s hands.

The spinning ceases. The room rests uneasily perfectly upside down, with the restored normal floor now directly above riders’ heads. This is a moment of extreme disequilibrium, a moment where the mind fools the body into thinking gravity has reversed...though closing your eyes removes all uneasiness. This is a moment of change, as Strange’s powers overtake Nightmare’s.

The Sanctum unravels like a kaleidoscope, spinning now in opposite directions, with different sections! The upended chamber swiftly reverts to its original shape, as a wide spectrum of magical energies flits about. The Seal of Vishanti opposite from Strange glows as a portal, suctioning Nightmare’s evil green energies into its vortex. Soon enough Nightmare himself is banished through the portal! Projections reveal his screaming visage in the moment before his disappearance! Lightning flashes wildly from the Seal!

Lights are gone momentarily. They return swiftly as well, revealing the Sanctum fully restored to its original form. Riders are again firmly on solid ground, and all shifting walls have regained their structural stability. Doctor Strange is gone now, the wall which he emerges through now solid and plain. Only Strange’s voice remains, wishing his guests well now that they have been cleansed of Nightmare’s terrifying psychic influence.

An exit leads through two platform doorways beneath the Seal of Vishanti. Both doors lead into the Rotunda of Gateways, also known as the Window of Worlds. It is a semi-circular apse, where different doorway portals look out onto different screen scenes: A jungle, a desert, the bottom of the ocean, and New York City. This last one isn’t a projection effect, but rather the final exit out from Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and back into the normalcy of Avengers Airspace.​

 

[D Hulk]

Hulk Speak: A Group Experiment
C-ticket animatronic show

Come face-to-face with the Incredible Hulk for an engaging conversation

The Incredible Hulk stars in this next generation interactive animatronic show! Come, board the Helicarrier and meet Hulk face-to-face. Engage the strongest Avenger in a scintillating conversation. Much like Turtle Talk with Crush, you never know exactly what Hulk might say. Guests help to steer the dialogue, which is good since Hulk’s social skills are rather...infantile.

Just be careful not to make Hulk angry! You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Access to Hulk Speak is found on the Helicarrier’s lower takeoff runway, where this C-ticket attraction helps to balance against the headlining Infinity Gauntlet ride. It’s clear that Hulk is somewhere nearby, thanks to the massive fist-shaped dents in the Helicarrier’s steel walls. The attraction entrance is not through a standard doorway, like you might expect. Rather, there is a massive hole in the wall shaped just like the Hulk. Entering through this hole, Hulk’s footstep dents lead inwards through industrial hallways. Further inwards, the footsteps gradually become smaller, reverting from Hulk to Bruce Banner, before vanishing entirely.

Dr. Banner has arranged this so-called “group experiment” in order to further understand the Hulk side of his personality. Think of it as one of the steps needed to achieve the Professor Hulk form seen in Avengers: Endgame. Banner has, er, assembled his guests here today to conduct a group interview with his Hulk persona, as a way to collect psychological data points. And it’s all in good fun too! Who wouldn’t want to meet the Hulk?

Lobby - Banner’s Labs

A gathering lobby space is found within the Helicarrier. Hulk Speak has a similar throughput to Enchanted Tiki Room, so this lobby serves as a similar waiting area. When guests aren’t present, the space - a multi-use facility in the Helicarrier - serves as Banner’s temporary gamma radiation laboratory. There are a great many hands-on lab elements here for guests to enjoy, from the chemical-shaking machine which guests can operate, to the DNA sequencing puzzle games on a row of inset wall screens. Lab beakers sit behind indestructible glass, all of them containing various green liquids. Robotic arms mix and match these liquids, which occasionally creates little green smoke cloud explosions.

With a few minutes to go before the show, a prerecording of Banner appears on a large central video screen. (Prior to this, the screen displays a gamma ray spectrum map.) Banner outlines the premise of his experiment. He encourages guests’ creativity in interviewing the Hulk, and cautions them about Hulk’s temper...always while using insistent terminology like “the Other Guy.” In brief outline, Banner describes Hulk’s backstory - about his creation in a gamma ray lab, about his various rampages - all while the screen visualises this with security cam & iPhone footage of Hulk (repurposed MCU clips). Lastly, Banner assures us that despite his reputation, “the Other Guy” is perfectly harmless…

Lab assistants usher guests into an amphitheater chamber, another laboratory with that familiar Helicarrier sterility. Tiered seating curves in a semicircle facing a central stage. At the moment, a glass cell sits above the stage, built to contain the Hulk in the off chance he gets unruly. Nearby walls feature green test tubes and transparent pipes along the walls which funnel green liquid. Readout screens monitor Banner’s vital signs.

Show - Banner Transforms

Once all the guests are gathered, the lab assistants wish everyone good luck...and seal them inside. Siren lights flash, while blast doors lower over the outer walls. (Of course an emergency exit remains available.)

With these security precautions in place, the room returns to normal. A live actor arrives portraying Dr. Bruce Banner, reassuring everyone that these safety measures are quite unnecessary. Everything is perfectly harmless.

Banner takes to the stage. As the cylindrical glass cell lowers around him, Banner sits cross-legged and meditates. He concentrates to induce a Hulk state. Banner’s life monitors start to go haywire: his heart rate quickens, his pulses spike. Lights flicker and dim throughout the chamber, taking on an increasingly green hue. Banner himself seems to be turning greener, with a simple trick of the lighting. His lap coat rips apart, a simple tear away effect. Fog starts to fill Banner’s cell. The mild-mannered scientist starts to roar and thrash as seen in silhouette.

Seen in shadow - and done with projection - Banner grows and transforms into Incredible Hulk!

Meet the Hulk

The fogs recede, suctioned from the chamber. Where Banner once stood, guests now find a full-scale animatronic Incredible Hulk - seven feet tall, solid green, bulging with muscles, shirtless and wearing purple shorts.

This is one extremely impressive animatronic! Hulk appears to be breathing, his ribcage expanding and contracting, as he struggles to contain his latent rage. Better still, this Hulk animatronic is “puppeteered” live, animated by a behind-the-scenes crew which includes the Banner face performer. That performer provides Hulk’s live voice, done a lot like the live performance of Crush in Turtle Talk. (Our Hulk actor also vanished backstage through a trap door during the transformation sequence.) Hulk is built with many preprogrammed movements, like a chest thump, a fist pound, a roar, and more, but he is also able to respond in-the-moment...to turn, to look specific guests in the eyes, to show an inner life like few animatronics before him.

Hulk Speaks

Hulk begins his “presentation” by roaring in a white hot fury, and pounding on the cell walls with his fists! Guests’ seats shake with every punch. For a few beats, Hulk appears on the verge of an unstoppable rampage...then he settles down, and bursts into a fit of laughter.

“HA HA HA! HULK SCARE FRIENDS! HA HA!...LIFT GLASS.”

The glass cell rises up. Now there is nothing protecting guests from the Hulk, or vice versa. Let the symposium commence! Hulk addresses various guests in turn, pointing them out and greeting them. Like Crush with his list of canned comments, Hulk has a few common phrases he can always return to. You know, stuff like “HULK SMASH!” Hulk will compare guests to his fellow Avengers, especially any guests who are dressed as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This can cause Hulk to go off on wild, angry tangents - “HULK HATE LOKI!” - or to recount past battles. Otherwise, he might refer to guests with phrases like “HEY LITTLE MAN!” or “HEY ANGRY GIRL!”

As the staged meet ‘n’ greet continues, Hulk presses guests to take charge. “ASK HULK QUESTION.” At other times, Hulk asks guests to roar with him. “ROAR LOUDER! GET ANGRY!” Occasionally, whenever something truly upsets him, Hulk’s anger briefly gets the better of him - as evidenced by the readout screens - but with tantric breathing Hulk is always able to calm himself down. “HULK FINE. HULK TOTALLY CHILL.”

This is a totally freeform interview process, so it lacks the sort of scripted crescendo often seen with live shows. Within reason, Hulk tries to stay “in-universe” with his Avengers commentary, and though this attraction is technically set before films like Thor: Ragnarok, we don’t particularly mind if Hulk chooses to enter into a soliloquy about his time spent on Sakaar. Despite the show’s relative lack of structure, certain touchstones like the “group roar” do serve as late-show hallmarks to keep guests’ interest high over the course of this 10-minute-long program.

But for all his gusto, Hulk eventually loses interest in the whole situation. “HULK TIRED. FRIENDS GO NOW.” A pause. “GOOOOO! NOOOOOW!” And with that graceful farewell, the show is concluded. Hulk falls asleep standing upright on his stage, as the glass cell lowers around him and the lights dim. With Hulk out of sight, though audibly snoring and even talking in his sleep, lab assistants return to guide guests back out into Avengers Airspace. They thank guests for participating in Banner’s experiment, and promise that the data they have collected is fascinating.​

 

[MickeyWaffleCo.]

As has happened with every single other DisneySky attraction before it, Hulk Speak has become my new favorite.

 

[D Hulk]

Superhero Tryouts
C-ticket meet & greet

Volunteer to learn your superpower, and meet your favorite heroes in person

Meet ‘n’ greets are a common enough thing in Disney Parks, though they are rarely extraordinary. Their appeal is simple enough anyway: The chance to meet your favorite characters face-to-face, to momentarily inhabit a favorite fictional world.

The world of the Avengers indulges guests in a distinctly thrilling fantasy - the chance to become a superhero! Because if there’s anything more wonderful than meeting your favorite hero, it’s getting the chance to train alongside them and develop your very own superpowers. That’s the experience available for guests at Superhero Tryouts, which elevates the meet ‘n’ greet format to new heights.

This attraction is accessed along the Helicarrier’s forward-starboard wing, in the southern stretch of Avengers Airspace featuring the Midtown Manhattan cityscape. Guests walk around the central spinning turbine, but are always kept well away from its edges to maintain the illusion that the Helicarrier is now sailing high up amid the skyscrapers. (This kinetic element is a duplicate of the northeast turbine.)

Superhero Tryouts is located in an ultra-modern stainless steel building perched just beyond the wing’s edge. This cylindrical structure resembles the MCU’s version of The Raft, with waters draining from several intake valves. Another nearby cylindrical facade - shared show space for both Superhero Tryouts and Hulk Speak - is itself modeled to resemble the Triskelion from The Winter Soldier. Guests access the initial building via fully-enclosed Stark Tech jet bridges, which appear like next-gen jet thruster pontoons with Avenger “A” frames.

(The illustrated map includes a large nearby Four Freedoms Plaza skyscraper, headquarters for the Fantastic Four. This section is intended to be a future expansion pad, and while we eagerly await the very “DisneySky” Fantastic Four joining the MCU, this setting can also serve other Marvel heroes as needed. Access to this upcoming attraction space would be along an escalator jet bridge, like Disneyland once used for Space Mountain.)

Queue - Avengers Lounge

Superhero Tryouts is most similar to Enchanted Tales with Belle at Magic Kingdom. It is an elaborate, multi-tiered experience leading up to the final meet ‘n’ greet moment. Every day, four superheroes are featured in this attraction. A regularly rotating roster (announced on Disney’s website) guarantees constant fresh experiences, with sub-attraction names along the lines of Superhero Tryouts with Black Panther or Superhero Tryouts with Valkyrie. There’s always someone new to meet, and for local guests especially there’s always the opportunity to someday meet your very favorite hero from Marvel’s expansive roster.
​

A Partial List of Featured Superheroes
​

• Iron Man​
• War Machine​
• Rescue Armor​
• Incredible Hulk​
• Mighty Thor​
• Valkyrie​
• Captain America​
• Falcon​
• Winter Soldier​
• Black Widow​
• Hawkeye​
• Scarlet Witch​
• Vision​
• Ant-Man​
• Wasp​
• Star Lord​
• Gamora​
• Rocket Racoon & Groot​
• Drax the Destroyer​
• Mantis​
• Doctor Strange​
• Black Panther​
• Shuri​
• Okoye​
• Spider-Man​
• Captain Marvel​

Four queue lines appear within an Avengers lounge setting. The nearest MCU equivalent is the Tony’s Avengers Tower penthouse space from The Avengers. The space is defined by recessed lighting, carved concrete, chic modern furniture, and tinted windows overlooking the lagoon. Each queue includes a poster of the featured hero, plus props associated with that character.

Attraction Experience - Stark Workshop

On a rotating basis, cast members gather groups deeper into Stark’s high-tech workshop. A new group of fifty guests departs every five minutes, while staggered rooms allow multiple groups to enjoy this twenty minute experience at once.

In the workshop, guests can mill about while the entire group is completed. Decor recalls Tony Stark’s garage from the original Iron Man, where state-of-the-art gadgetry mixes in with more commonplace metalworking tools. Wall screens serve as windows into the Tower’s cavernous labs beyond, helping to reduce this cramped room’s small scale feel.

The workshop’s centerpiece is an animatronic Iron Legion suit - a red, white & blue Iron Man drone with exposed servos and a loose face plate. Once the entire group is present, the Iron Legion drone speaks with Tony Stark’s voice, describing the setup: Stark and Banner have made a recent breakthrough in superpower studies! With a special gamma ray formula, they are able to induce latent superpowers in regular humans. The only catches? This only works on the very young - allowing our attraction to cater to preteen guests and their parents - and the effects are purely temporary. But still, what child wouldn’t leap at the chance to have genuine superpowers?

Cast members portraying Stark Labs interns interview their youngest guests. Using touchscreen tablets, the interns offer children a range of superpowers to choose from. The initial power set includes super strength, flight, super speed, and web-slinging, while powers to be added later could include telekinesis, size alteration, and more. Every young applicant receives a souvenir Avengers “A” medal corresponding to their chosen power - explained by Stark’s drone as a technological component needed to help activate the gamma rays.

Gamma Radiation Chamber

Power meters on a far wall flash “100%,” indicating that the experiment is ready to begin! Two doors open up. The first, meant exclusively for children volunteering to become superheroes, leads into the gamma radiation chambers. The other door, located above on a balcony, leads to an elevated platform where parents (and anyone else opting out of the process) can observe.

Children progress into the spew chamber, as seen by observers through a glass barrier. For a brief moment, green fog envelops the volunteers. Chemicals in their “A” medals trigger the gamma radiation effects. TV screens in the laboratory walls show digital readouts of our guests: Power starts to surge through them.

Parents watching above - since they are one step removed from the attraction’s interactive component - can busy themselves with an animatronic Dummy, the adorable malfunctioning robot assembly arm from the original Iron Man.

Superpower VR Rooms

It is time for guests to test out their newfound superpowers! Safely, of course.

To achieve this, interns help young guests into several individual VR rooms located adjacent to the radiation chamber. There are five rooms total, enough so that each child can enjoy one minute entirely on their own to try out their powers. Parents are welcome to join their children while every young superhero awaits his or her turn. (Children are entirely welcome to bypass this element, and cast members are mindful never to pressure squeamish guests.)

The VR interiors resemble Cerebro from X-Men, without being a direct copy. This is a sparse space with a curved screen able to bear live-rendered projections. Air streams can read guests’ body movements. Motion trackers accurately duplicate guests’ motions on the screen, depicting them in a virtual environment where their superpowers are given free reign…

Lift up cars! Fly through a cityscape! Shoot webs from your wrists! It’s all possible. Technically, this isn’t terribly far removed from the virtual gaming once seen at DisneyQuest; in fact, over a decade of technological development makes the experience even more believable.

Meet Your Hero

With their temporary powers wearing off, our group finally continues into a final room to meet their featured hero. Split paths from the radiation chamber lead to several distinct rooms, to heroes’ workout rooms which feature personalized decor placed over the standard technological interiors.

Families each get extended one-on-one time to chat with their hero. Heroes praise young heroes-in-training for the bravery and skill demonstrated in their tryout. Simulation videos in the wall depict renderings of children’s VR superpower testrun. For children who opted out of the VR element, heroes instead praise them for their leadership skills. No matter what, heroes will say that every child shows real potential. Everyone in the room is then deemed an Honorary Avenger!

Lastly, every meet ‘n’ greet room deposits guests into a semi-circular hallway within the Triskelion structure. Pathways converge for all groups, leading back out to the Helicarrier wing.​

 

[D Hulk]

The remaining Avengers Airspace attractions are extremely minor, so I've decided to do a rare additional post. Enjoy!

The Core
B-ticket “black box” flex space

Find limited time only Marvel offerings at this flexible exhibit space

Upon entering Avengers Airspace through the Greenwich Village archway, there is a decommissioned 1930s power station directly to the right. This is the Core, a “black box” flexible event venue which is able to temporarily host all manner of possible attractions. With its rooftop water tower and actively steaming smokestack, the Core feels like an appropriately detailed inclusion to DisneySky even with its somewhat utilitarian purpose.

It isn’t uncommon for Disney to create flex spaces such as this. The Pavilion at Hong Kong Disneyland is very similar in function. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe regularly releasing several major films and shows each year, the Core provides a 10,000 square foot space to temporarily promote these properties without massive attraction investments. And with the Core located on Avengers Airspace’s outskirts, the location is thematically flexible enough to fit non-Marvel Disney franchises when needed. The large, warehouse-like interior boasts the same state-of-the-art theatrical lighting technology found on film soundstages, making for an incredibly malleable space. Core exhibits can be switched out monthly or even weekly. Even special one-night VIP events can be staged here.

Among the attraction types likely to be found at the Core, we find:
​

• Highly immersive character meet ‘n’ greets​
• Exhibit halls akin to Innoventions​
• Walkthrough attractions employing film prop set dressing​
• Haunted scare mazes, which should prove especially usefully during the Halloween season​

The Core is also able to house the newly-announced trackless “black box” dark ride concept without sacrificing its ability to change back to other functions. This very new idea has proved controversial with Disney fans, and it hasn’t yet been applied in real life parks, but it holds promise. Screen projections alone serve to create an enveloping ride-through setting, which can be programmed and developed remotely, then switched out as quickly as film in a projector.

Ultimately, with a nearby expansion pad slated for DisneySky’s eventual eighth destination (land), the Core is likely to be a short-lived part of DisneySky’s attraction lineup. There is no particular Core attraction planned for DisneySky’s opening day - that depends on when that happens, and what MCU projects are hot at the time. It could be something dedicated to What If?, or Thor: Love and Thunder, or something else entirely. The sky’s the limit!
​

---

DisneySky JetRail – Avengers Airspace Station
C-ticket transportation

The Avengers Airspace Station is accessed on the far upper decks of the Helicarrier landing runway. Even unadorned, this is a spectacular spot which affords views overlooking New York City’s many skyscraper facades and rooftops. The structure directly ahead - part of the building which houses Midgard Grub at city level - is a respectful scale replica of the bronze-roofed Grand Central Terminal. It appears as it does early in Avengers: Age of Ultron. A marble statue on the frieze depicts New York’s other heroes, its mortal heroes, the city’s cops and firefighters and emergency personnel, all engaged in heroism. The JetRail trains park directly in front of this epic statue.

The station itself is a “temporary” construction on the Helicarrier runway, formed of S.H.I.E.L.D. military tarp stretched between the wings of two F-35 Lightnings. Guests mingle and queue between ammo cans and aircraft carrier service vehicles. With wide open views of the upper Helicarrier decks, this is an ideal spot to enjoy streetmosphere while waiting.​

 

[James G.]

Superhero Tryouts
C-ticket meet & greet

Volunteer to learn your superpower, and meet your favorite heroes in person

Meet ‘n’ greets are a common enough thing in Disney Parks, though they are rarely extraordinary. Their appeal is simple enough anyway: The chance to meet your favorite characters face-to-face, to momentarily inhabit a favorite fictional world.

The world of the Avengers indulges guests in a distinctly thrilling fantasy - the chance to become a superhero! Because if there’s anything more wonderful than meeting your favorite hero, it’s getting the chance to train alongside them and develop your very own superpowers. That’s the experience available for guests at Superhero Tryouts, which elevates the meet ‘n’ greet format to new heights.

This attraction is accessed along the Helicarrier’s forward-starboard wing, in the southern stretch of Avengers Airspace featuring the Midtown Manhattan cityscape. Guests walk around the central spinning turbine, but are always kept well away from its edges to maintain the illusion that the Helicarrier is now sailing high up amid the skyscrapers. (This kinetic element is a duplicate of the northeast turbine.)

Superhero Tryouts is located in an ultra-modern stainless steel building perched just beyond the wing’s edge. This cylindrical structure resembles the MCU’s version of The Raft, with waters draining from several intake valves. Another nearby cylindrical facade - shared show space for both Superhero Tryouts and Hulk Speak - is itself modeled to resemble the Triskelion from The Winter Soldier. Guests access the initial building via fully-enclosed Stark Tech jet bridges, which appear like next-gen jet thruster pontoons with Avenger “A” frames.

(The illustrated map includes a large nearby Four Freedoms Plaza skyscraper, headquarters for the Fantastic Four. This section is intended to be a future expansion pad, and while we eagerly await the very “DisneySky” Fantastic Four joining the MCU, this setting can also serve other Marvel heroes as needed. Access to this upcoming attraction space would be along an escalator jet bridge, like Disneyland once used for Space Mountain.)

Queue - Avengers Lounge

Superhero Tryouts is most similar to Enchanted Tales with Belle at Magic Kingdom. It is an elaborate, multi-tiered experience leading up to the final meet ‘n’ greet moment. Every day, four superheroes are featured in this attraction. A regularly rotating roster (announced on Disney’s website) guarantees constant fresh experiences, with sub-attraction names along the lines of Superhero Tryouts with Black Panther or Superhero Tryouts with Valkyrie. There’s always someone new to meet, and for local guests especially there’s always the opportunity to someday meet your very favorite hero from Marvel’s expansive roster.



Four queue lines appear within an Avengers lounge setting. The nearest MCU equivalent is the Tony’s Avengers Tower penthouse space from The Avengers. The space is defined by recessed lighting, carved concrete, chic modern furniture, and tinted windows overlooking the lagoon. Each queue includes a poster of the featured hero, plus props associated with that character.

Attraction Experience - Stark Workshop

On a rotating basis, cast members gather groups deeper into Stark’s high-tech workshop. A new group of fifty guests departs every five minutes, while staggered rooms allow multiple groups to enjoy this twenty minute experience at once.

In the workshop, guests can mill about while the entire group is completed. Decor recalls Tony Stark’s garage from the original Iron Man, where state-of-the-art gadgetry mixes in with more commonplace metalworking tools. Wall screens serve as windows into the Tower’s cavernous labs beyond, helping to reduce this cramped room’s small scale feel.

The workshop’s centerpiece is an animatronic Iron Legion suit - a red, white & blue Iron Man drone with exposed servos and a loose face plate. Once the entire group is present, the Iron Legion drone speaks with Tony Stark’s voice, describing the setup: Stark and Banner have made a recent breakthrough in superpower studies! With a special gamma ray formula, they are able to induce latent superpowers in regular humans. The only catches? This only works on the very young - allowing our attraction to cater to preteen guests and their parents - and the effects are purely temporary. But still, what child wouldn’t leap at the chance to have genuine superpowers?

Cast members portraying Stark Labs interns interview their youngest guests. Using touchscreen tablets, the interns offer children a range of superpowers to choose from. The initial power set includes super strength, flight, super speed, and web-slinging, while powers to be added later could include telekinesis, size alteration, and more. Every young applicant receives a souvenir Avengers “A” medal corresponding to their chosen power - explained by Stark’s drone as a technological component needed to help activate the gamma rays.

Gamma Radiation Chamber

Power meters on a far wall flash “100%,” indicating that the experiment is ready to begin! Two doors open up. The first, meant exclusively for children volunteering to become superheroes, leads into the gamma radiation chambers. The other door, located above on a balcony, leads to an elevated platform where parents (and anyone else opting out of the process) can observe.

Children progress into the spew chamber, as seen by observers through a glass barrier. For a brief moment, green fog envelops the volunteers. Chemicals in their “A” medals trigger the gamma radiation effects. TV screens in the laboratory walls show digital readouts of our guests: Power starts to surge through them.

Parents watching above - since they are one step removed from the attraction’s interactive component - can busy themselves with an animatronic Dummy, the adorable malfunctioning robot assembly arm from the original Iron Man.

Superpower VR Rooms

It is time for guests to test out their newfound superpowers! Safely, of course.

To achieve this, interns help young guests into several individual VR rooms located adjacent to the radiation chamber. There are five rooms total, enough so that each child can enjoy one minute entirely on their own to try out their powers. Parents are welcome to join their children while every young superhero awaits his or her turn. (Children are entirely welcome to bypass this element, and cast members are mindful never to pressure squeamish guests.)

The VR interiors resemble Cerebro from X-Men, without being a direct copy. This is a sparse space with a curved screen able to bear live-rendered projections. Air streams can read guests’ body movements. Motion trackers accurately duplicate guests’ motions on the screen, depicting them in a virtual environment where their superpowers are given free reign…

Lift up cars! Fly through a cityscape! Shoot webs from your wrists! It’s all possible. Technically, this isn’t terribly far removed from the virtual gaming once seen at DisneyQuest; in fact, over a decade of technological development makes the experience even more believable.

Meet Your Hero

With their temporary powers wearing off, our group finally continues into a final room to meet their featured hero. Split paths from the radiation chamber lead to several distinct rooms, to heroes’ workout rooms which feature personalized decor placed over the standard technological interiors.

Families each get extended one-on-one time to chat with their hero. Heroes praise young heroes-in-training for the bravery and skill demonstrated in their tryout. Simulation videos in the wall depict renderings of children’s VR superpower testrun. For children who opted out of the VR element, heroes instead praise them for their leadership skills. No matter what, heroes will say that every child shows real potential. Everyone in the room is then deemed an Honorary Avenger!

Lastly, every meet ‘n’ greet room deposits guests into a semi-circular hallway within the Triskelion structure. Pathways converge for all groups, leading back out to the Helicarrier wing.​

I have no idea if this would be an easy inclusion or a technological nightmare, but I think it would be important to have provisions made for physically-challenged (or whatever the current P.C. phrase is) children to experience this. Wheelchair-bound, etc. should not be a reason for a kid not to want to dream- making this experience available to kids with disabilities would probably have a more powerful impact on them and their families than on any segment of your audience.

 

[D Hulk]

Avengers Airspace - Dining

Dining throughout Avengers Airspace is plentiful, but mostly comprised of smaller-scale counter service restaurants...especially in Goodman Park. Between the contemporary setting and the smaller footprints, restaurants feature perhaps less theming individually than in other lands, though the aggregate total experience still paints a vibrant urban setting!​

 

[D Hulk]

Shawarma Palace
Counter service restaurant

Shawarma and other Middle Eastern items
[ADULT DRINKS]

Emerging victorious in the aftermath of 2012’s Battle of New York, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes celebrated with a feast at Shawarma Palace. Since then, Shawarma Palace has ridden a wave of Avengers hype and become one of the hottest spots in New York. People flock from across the world to stand in the footsteps of their heroes, and to enjoy some very tasty Middle Eastern food.

Shawarma Palace spans half of a city block overlooking Langley Lagoon. The main entrance is along Waterfront Way, though a complex of dining rooms stretches back to 6th Avenue. Once called merely “Shawarma Place,” Shawarma Palace’s streetfront sign now features an additional Avengers logo “A” to instead spell “Palace.”

The “old shop” portion of Shawarma Palace - as it was seen in The Avengers - now functions exclusively as the ordering area. Signed black-and-white photographs of the various Avengers line the walls. A large banner proclaims “Voted #1 Shawarma in Manhattan!” A gyro meat skewer spins on the back counter. Seated atop it is a kinetic autogyro model. Both are labeled “GYRO.” Among the Palace’s Middle Eastern dishes include - of course - gyro, but also the eponymous shawarma, stuffed grape leaves, baklava desserts, and the massive “superhero sandwich.”

To capitalize on their skyrocketing success, Shawarma Palace has bought out several neighboring businesses and expanded their footprint. The dining area is divided up into these spaces. (New York Deli in Tokyo DisneySea does something very similar.) With the exception of deli-style table seating which has been added, the former shops retain their original look and decor…
​

• One room is made from an old record shop. Mounted records on the walls highlight bands featured in MCU soundtracks. One corner remains under repair from damages sustained in the Chitauri invasion.​

​

• “Luke’s,” formerly a seedy pub owned and operated by Luke Cage...a second location of his original Harlem bar. Like in DisneySea’s New York Deli, an active cast member bartender behind the counter pours beers. (Tokens are purchased in advance at the main ordering counter.)​

​

• A barber shop, also recognizable as an old Luke Cage haunt. The barber stools have been removed, but the mirrors and haircutting stations remain. The walls are filled top to bottom with signed Avengers caricatures, in a nod to Hollywood’s Brown Derby.​

Should seating indoors be unavailable, guests are invited to dine al fresco along tree-lined Waterfront Way, under the awnings of Greenwich Village-style patios enclosed by iron fencing.
​

---

Murph’s Bodega (left) and Famous Beta Ray’s Original Pizza (right)

Murph’s Bodega
Counter service restaurant

Bodega-style cold cuts and more
[ADULT DRINKS]

This classic bodega - inspired by one in Spider-Man: Homecoming - is located on the corner of 6th Avenue and Bleecker Street. Once a combination of grocery store and delicatessen, just like many a bodega, Murph’s now dedicates itself to full-time food service. They serve New York-style cold cut deli sandwiches and salads, argued by some to be the best hoagies in Manhattan!

Grocery store clutter still fills up the interior ordering space. Plentiful snacks and drinks and pharmacy products (et cetera) sit inaccessible behind display glass. The bodega’s collection of curios includes in-universe Avengers toys as well as superhero tabloids like the Daily Bugle. Evidence abounds of a resident housecat - what self-respecting bodega doesn’t have a cat? - like food and a bed alongside the ordering counter. Guests can even hear the unseen cat purring loudly behind a private doorway.

Murph’s Bodega shares dining space with Famous Beta Ray’s Original Pizza nearby. An alleyway separating the two restaurants has been enclosed with a greenhouse roof and fully converted to accommodate guests. On the far brick wall is a colorful street mural of the Battle of New York. Other little alleyway details add extra texture: Bricked-up former doorways, various outdoor pipes, a soapbox crate marked “Stan’s Soapbox.”
​

---

Famous Beta Ray’s Original Pizza
Counter service restaurant

New York pizza and more

Next door is a classic Italian pizzeria, located closest to Goodman Plaza. Jokingly named for Marvel’s Beta Ray Bill, this restaurant gazes out upon a perfectly-framed image of the JetRail overhead and Avengers Tower triumphant in the distance. Guests come here for delicious New York pizza sold whole or by the slice, in addition to pastas, Italian salads and meatball subs.

Beta Ray’s is built atop what was originally an olive oil warehouse; faded vineyard murals on the brick walls make that clear. The space is now redressed as a tribute to famous Italian aviators, particularly Caproni, with beautifully romanticized framed paintings depicting fantastical old school flying machines. All this, plus the usual faux-stucco look of an Italian-American diner!

In addition to the alleyway dining space shared with Murph’s, Beta Ray’s also boasts tables in an upstairs loft. (Thanks to the gap provided by the alleyway, the Club 133 members-only-club which partially occupies Murph’s upstairs space doesn’t continue over here.) The mostly bare wood loft doubles as a storage space for Sokovian & Latverian cultural artifacts, with items like flags and peasant clothing and maps piling up in the recesses.
​

---

Midgard Grub
Snack counter

Smoked meat and drinks
[ADULT DRINKS]

Gather hither, Midgardians! Feast like an Asgardian at yonder Midgard Grub! Enjoy a quaff, then request ANOTHER! Sup ye upon succulent smoked meats and frothy ales...actually Disney turkey legs and local beers. Or prove yourself worthy by ordering our specialty mead, available either in a plastic cup or in a souvenir Viking helmet (also plastic).

Midgard Grub is set along Goodman Plaza overlooking the Museum of Norse History. This is a simple food window on the ground floor of the Grand Central Terminal building, whose upper levels are employed by Avengers Airspace’s JetRail station. And mighty though this building is, it still pales in contrast to the nearby Thor E-ticket.

Spread around the ordering windows are Viking artifacts on loan from the museum. A large stone carving from a stave church depicts the fearsome Midgard Serpent. Old wooden gates and oars flank this rune. The restaurant’s kitchen, visible beyond the ordering windows, is themed to resemble an intricate Asgardian cookhouse.

Scattered bench seating is found throughout Goodman Plaza...all the better to feast while enjoying a showing of Thor’s Uplifting Event.​

 

[Imagineer Brandon]

i appreciate the references to the b-list heroes like daredevil and luke cage.

 

[D Hulk]

S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley
Character dining buffeteria

Buffet featuring American dishes and Avengers character encounters

By far the largest public restaurant in Avengers Airspace is S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley, located below decks in the Helicarrier’s aft section. Guests will dine just like Avengers or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Helicarrier’s steel galley, enjoying American dishes which are both simple and of very high quality. This is an exceptional character dining location! Guests are practically guaranteed to interact with one or more Marvel superheroes at their table, making this a truly unforgettable experience.

The Galley entrance is located on the enclosed level beneath the upper landing deck, near the rear port turbine wing. Guests enter through frosted glass walls bearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. Cast members check guests in using high-tech touchscreen cabinets inspired by Nick Fury’s command deck.

A large, low-slung mess hall serves as the sprawling buffeteria floor. Minus the details, this is like any aircraft carrier galley, a sparsely functional military setting. But those details! There are four serving stations, each one dedicated to a different main Avenger, each one bearing the seized gear of that Avenger’s villains.

Captain America’s station serves entrees. Shelf space above the food trays bears 1940s Hydra tech, vintage dieselpunk ray guns, Red Skull’s skull-octopus hood ornament, and more.

Green items such as salads are of course found at Hulk’s station. Here you will find Hulk’s war trophies from the Battle of New York, with items like Chitauri blasters, quantum grenades, and Loki’s helmet (complete with a massive fist indent).

Thor’s station is where you’ll find the desserts. Shelving displays busted Destroyer armor, Dark Elf masks, Scourge’s executioner axe, and various stones from a felled Kronan.

Lastly there is Iron Man’s drink station. Naturally, here you’ll find seized technology made by Stark’s enemies, with items ranging from Iron Monger’s helmet to a Hammeroid drone to Whiplash’s whip gauntlets and arc reactor.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley serves guests breakfast, lunch and dinner, with unique menu items available for each meal. The cuisine here is classic, non-threatening American food, all standard safe-but-elevated dishes such as meatloaf, baked potatoes and Cobb salads. The primary desserts are New York cheesecakes, available in a variety of seasonal flavors.

The main dining area sits on a slightly sunken level within view of the buffeteria. This is the below decks hangar bay, with mess hall tables stationed around a central F-15 fighter jet. Cargo boxes and ammo can supplies are neatly stacked around the base. Klieg lights dance in the darkness. Electrical wires running overhead provide a dazzling lightshow like similar details in the MISSION: Breakout queue. There is a large video screen on the far end, meant to be the hangar bay’s outer windows, providing constant mid-flight views. Like the screens in the queue for Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, it is always daytime in these videos. Occasionally, Nick Fury will come across on the Helicarrier’s PAs issuing orders to S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel.

Dedicated restrooms set in a latrine alongside the hangar bay maintain the same featureless steel look as the public restrooms on the Helicarrier deck.

There are four private, highly-themed dining rooms, one each for the four main Avengers. Reservations are required to dine in these rooms, and are highly coveted as well since a meal here includes an extended face-to-face meet ‘n’ greet with the room’s owner...extremely conversational face performers who excel at in-character improvisation.

The Tony Stark Room is a makeshift garage workshop which he has built into the Helicarrier. It comes complete with futuristic Stark Tech, computer consoles and fabrication machines, filling every available space. There are some noteworthy items on display from Iron Man’s early adventures, like the original arc reactor mounted in a glass cube. The red and gold Iron Man Mach 42 suit is seated cross-legged on a bench, with space next to it for guest photo-ops.

The Steve Rogers Room is decorated like a vintage 1940s diner. This serves as Rogers’ escape from the modern world. Framed newspapers detailing Cap’s WWII-era heroics line the walls. The central spot of honor goes to a mounted vibranium shield. Tabletop displays consist of old military medals and baseball mementos. A vinyl record player continually belts out crackly, old-timey swing music.

The Thor Odinson Room is dominated by a central wooden long table, set before a large fireplace. Burning inside, out-of-reach, is the Eternal Flame. Thor has personalized his quarters to resemble an Asgardian Great Hall, with a great number of Norse props on hand. A mantlepiece over the fireplace displays Thor’s armor. Golden friezes along the steel wall depict the great historic battles of Bor and Odin. Mjolnir hangs daintily from a coat rack, but of course guests find it impossible to lift. Face character Thor has no trouble at all though.

Lastly, the Dr. Bruce Banner Room is a meditation chamber designed to keep Banner’s monstrously explosive temper at bay. It’s all fairly minimalist in contrast to the other rooms, with the main feature being a row of screens simulating a tranquil lakeview. Off to one side is a chemistry lab. Scientific treatises on gamma rays line the tabletop.

Occasionally the lab’s beaker chemicals will boil. The entire room will suddenly shake and turn green. A mounted painting of Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk, an effect like the Haunted Mansion paintings. Guests can even hear Hulk himself rampaging and roaring with rage, off in the distant bowels of the Helicarrier. Our Bruce Banner face performer likes to trigger these effects just before making his entrance.
​

---

Super Dogs
Snack cart

Hot dog wagon

Ah, the classic New York City hot dog cart! So simple, so obvious, but we would be remiss not to include one. Serving in that esteemed role is Super Dogs, dishing out hot dogs and corn dogs across from Shawarma Palace since 2012.

There really isn’t much theming which can be added to a basic hot dog vendor...just a little dressing up to fit the Avengers’ universe. A cheesy, off-brand plywood cutout of the Avengers “graces” the wagon’s front panel, alongside the menu. All around are plastic grocery crates and metal ingredients boxes, which guests can use as benches if they so please. Or guests can sit on one of several shaded benches overlooking Langley Lagoon, enjoying their treat along with panoramic views of Mt. Helios.
​

---

Capsicles
Snack cart

Soft serve with character motifs

Over on Liberty Isle, all the way on the other side of the Helicarrier, there is a similarly simplistic snack stand. Capsicles is a touristy ice cream truck with a Captain America theme, parked in the shadows of Lee Bridge and Avengers Academy Boytique. Like so many of the establishments in Avengers Airspace, Capsicles was founded to capitalize on Avengers Fever™. The truck’s chintzy decorations - its “Welcome Back Cap” banner and its side panel mural of Cap frozen in ice - severely clash with the somber tone of Liberty Park...

That surrounding Liberty Park greenery, with its many historic tributes to Captain America, provide most of the ambiance and theming. Capsicles provides the food...soft serve ice cream dishes brightly colored to represent various Avengers. There are cookies shaped like Cap’s shield, or Mjolnir-shaped popsicles. Try the premier flavors from Ben & Jerry’s, like Stark Raving Hazelnuts (a little chalky) or Hunka-Hulka Burnin’ Fudge!​

 

[Garfield Builder]

S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley
Character dining buffeteria

Buffet featuring American dishes and Avengers character encounters

By far the largest public restaurant in Avengers Airspace is S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley, located below decks in the Helicarrier’s aft section. Guests will dine just like Avengers or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the Helicarrier’s steel galley, enjoying American dishes which are both simple and of very high quality. This is an exceptional character dining location! Guests are practically guaranteed to interact with one or more Marvel superheroes at their table, making this a truly unforgettable experience.

The Galley entrance is located on the enclosed level beneath the upper landing deck, near the rear port turbine wing. Guests enter through frosted glass walls bearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. Cast members check guests in using high-tech touchscreen cabinets inspired by Nick Fury’s command deck.

A large, low-slung mess hall serves as the sprawling buffeteria floor. Minus the details, this is like any aircraft carrier galley, a sparsely functional military setting. But those details! There are four serving stations, each one dedicated to a different main Avenger, each one bearing the seized gear of that Avenger’s villains.

Captain America’s station serves entrees. Shelf space above the food trays bears 1940s Hydra tech, vintage dieselpunk ray guns, Red Skull’s skull-octopus hood ornament, and more.

Green items such as salads are of course found at Hulk’s station. Here you will find Hulk’s war trophies from the Battle of New York, with items like Chitauri blasters, quantum grenades, and Loki’s helmet (complete with a massive fist indent).

Thor’s station is where you’ll find the desserts. Shelving displays busted Destroyer armor, Dark Elf masks, Scourge’s executioner axe, and various stones from a felled Kronan.

Lastly there is Iron Man’s drink station. Naturally, here you’ll find seized technology made by Stark’s enemies, with items ranging from Iron Monger’s helmet to a Hammeroid drone to Whiplash’s whip gauntlets and arc reactor.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. Galley serves guests breakfast, lunch and dinner, with unique menu items available for each meal. The cuisine here is classic, non-threatening American food, all standard safe-but-elevated dishes such as meatloaf, baked potatoes and Cobb salads. The primary desserts are New York cheesecakes, available in a variety of seasonal flavors.

The main dining area sits on a slightly sunken level within view of the buffeteria. This is the below decks hangar bay, with mess hall tables stationed around a central F-15 fighter jet. Cargo boxes and ammo can supplies are neatly stacked around the base. Klieg lights dance in the darkness. Electrical wires running overhead provide a dazzling lightshow like similar details in the MISSION: Breakout queue. There is a large video screen on the far end, meant to be the hangar bay’s outer windows, providing constant mid-flight views. Like the screens in the queue for Avengers: Infinity Gauntlet, it is always daytime in these videos. Occasionally, Nick Fury will come across on the Helicarrier’s PAs issuing orders to S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel.

Dedicated restrooms set in a latrine alongside the hangar bay maintain the same featureless steel look as the public restrooms on the Helicarrier deck.

There are four private, highly-themed dining rooms, one each for the four main Avengers. Reservations are required to dine in these rooms, and are highly coveted as well since a meal here includes an extended face-to-face meet ‘n’ greet with the room’s owner...extremely conversational face performers who excel at in-character improvisation.

The Tony Stark Room is a makeshift garage workshop which he has built into the Helicarrier. It comes complete with futuristic Stark Tech, computer consoles and fabrication machines, filling every available space. There are some noteworthy items on display from Iron Man’s early adventures, like the original arc reactor mounted in a glass cube. The red and gold Iron Man Mach 42 suit is seated cross-legged on a bench, with space next to it for guest photo-ops.

The Steve Rogers Room is decorated like a vintage 1940s diner. This serves as Rogers’ escape from the modern world. Framed newspapers detailing Cap’s WWII-era heroics line the walls. The central spot of honor goes to a mounted vibranium shield. Tabletop displays consist of old military medals and baseball mementos. A vinyl record player continually belts out crackly, old-timey swing music.

The Thor Odinson Room is dominated by a central wooden long table, set before a large fireplace. Burning inside, out-of-reach, is the Eternal Flame. Thor has personalized his quarters to resemble an Asgardian Great Hall, with a great number of Norse props on hand. A mantlepiece over the fireplace displays Thor’s armor. Golden friezes along the steel wall depict the great historic battles of Bor and Odin. Mjolnir hangs daintily from a coat rack, but of course guests find it impossible to lift. Face character Thor has no trouble at all though.

Lastly, the Dr. Bruce Banner Room is a meditation chamber designed to keep Banner’s monstrously explosive temper at bay. It’s all fairly minimalist in contrast to the other rooms, with the main feature being a row of screens simulating a tranquil lakeview. Off to one side is a chemistry lab. Scientific treatises on gamma rays line the tabletop.

Occasionally the lab’s beaker chemicals will boil. The entire room will suddenly shake and turn green. A mounted painting of Bruce Banner changes into the Hulk, an effect like the Haunted Mansion paintings. Guests can even hear Hulk himself rampaging and roaring with rage, off in the distant bowels of the Helicarrier. Our Bruce Banner face performer likes to trigger these effects just before making his entrance.
​

---

Super Dogs
Snack cart

Hot dog wagon

Ah, the classic New York City hot dog cart! So simple, so obvious, but we would be remiss not to include one. Serving in that esteemed role is Super Dogs, dishing out hot dogs and corn dogs across from Shawarma Palace since 2012.

There really isn’t much theming which can be added to a basic hot dog vendor...just a little dressing up to fit the Avengers’ universe. A cheesy, off-brand plywood cutout of the Avengers “graces” the wagon’s front panel, alongside the menu. All around are plastic grocery crates and metal ingredients boxes, which guests can use as benches if they so please. Or guests can sit on one of several shaded benches overlooking Langley Lagoon, enjoying their treat along with panoramic views of Mt. Helios.
​

---

Capsicles
Snack cart

Soft serve with character motifs

Over on Liberty Isle, all the way on the other side of the Helicarrier, there is a similarly simplistic snack stand. Capsicles is a touristy ice cream truck with a Captain America theme, parked in the shadows of Lee Bridge and Avengers Academy Boytique. Like so many of the establishments in Avengers Airspace, Capsicles was founded to capitalize on Avengers Fever™. The truck’s chintzy decorations - its “Welcome Back Cap” banner and its side panel mural of Cap frozen in ice - severely clash with the somber tone of Liberty Park...

That surrounding Liberty Park greenery, with its many historic tributes to Captain America, provide most of the ambiance and theming. Capsicles provides the food...soft serve ice cream dishes brightly colored to represent various Avengers. There are cookies shaped like Cap’s shield, or Mjolnir-shaped popsicles. Try the premier flavors from Ben & Jerry’s, like Stark Raving Hazelnuts (a little chalky) or Hunka-Hulka Burnin’ Fudge!​

Nice

 

[Suchomimus]

Is Club 133 so big that it would its own dedicated comment?

 

[D Hulk]

Is Club 133 so big that it would its own dedicated comment?

'Tis!